Praveen Fernandes
Constitutional Accountability Center
Praveen is Vice President for Public Engagement at Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC). He comes to CAC from The Raben Group, where he was a Principal, advising non-profit clients on issues including LGBTQ equality, criminal justice, wealth inequality, digital equity, and judicial nominations. Before the Raben Group, Praveen was a political appointee in the Obama Administration, serving as Senior Counsel and Advisor to the General Counsel at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). At OPM, he focused on LGBTQ issues, particularly the federal government’s policies relating to transgender employees and the federal government’s implementation of U.S. v. Windsor, the Supreme Court decision that struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. Additionally, he worked on issues relating to workforce diversity, parental leave, contracting, national security, and workplace discrimination.
Praveen has also worked at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, Justice at Stake, the Human Rights Campaign, Patton Boggs, Ropes & Gray, and the President’s Commission on Human Radiation Experiments (a bioethics advisory committee tasked with preparing and presenting a report to President Clinton). He began his career on Capitol Hill, where he served on Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s Labor Committee staff.
Praveen earned his J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law, and his M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health. While in law school, he was a Note and Comment Editor on the North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation. He graduated with honors from Brown University, where his undergraduate concentration was in Biomedical Ethics. In 2010, Praveen was named on the National LGBT Bar Association’s “Top 40 Under 40” list.
